Willie Nelson’s Acoustic Exclusive Premieres on AARP

Willie Nelson‘s newest album, Band of Brothers, comes out on Tuesday, but he premieres this acoustic version of the title track exclusively on AARP’s YouTube channel today through Wednesday.

Having released four albums since February 2012, Nelson is watching his career blossom in a way that must be the envy of artists half his age: The Desperado-in-Chief of the “outlaw country music scene” turned 81 on April 29.

Because Band of Brothers features 14 new recordings – nine of them debut tunes that Nelson cowrote with his longtime producer, Buddy Cannon – his label, Sony, seems justified in crowing that this is “the artist’s first album of predominately new original material in nearly two decades.”

The new album offers compositions that nimbly range in tone from the rowdy fun of “Wives and Girlfriends” (“… may they never meet / May they never know each other / When they pass on the street”) to the introspective depth of “Send Me a Picture” (“I used to think time would make it all better / But I have learned better as time passed away”).

Nelson himself acknowledges the creative bronco he’s been riding of late: “I got on kind of a writing kick,” he said recently. “It’s good to be writing again.”

Wow, love Willie Nelson. So glad my Dad was into Country music when it was't cool. Now everybody loves it. And so glad I grew up loving it. Willie can tell the greatest stories ever told. Keep on singing